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Our government’s credibility problem
How unreliable is the National Intelligence Estimate on Iranian nukes? Let John Bolton writing in the Washington Post count the ways. He points out, among other things, that “[t]he current NIE freely admits to having only moderate confidence that the suspension [of the Iranian uranium enrichment program] continues and says that there are significant gaps in our intelligence and that our analysts dissent from their initial judgment on suspension. This alone should give us considerable pause.” If the report’s authors are only moderately confident about its main conclusion and express doubts about it, then why in the world did the president, whose policy is shredded and whose leadership is destroyed by the report, treat the report as definitive? Indeed, why did he allow it to be published at all? He’s still the head of the government, right? How could he spend years telling us that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, and that this is an event the world cannot permit to happen, all of which was leading to the use of military force against Iran, then turn around and permit the publication of and personally endorse this highly questionable report which renders inoperative everything he’s been saying?
The real question, then, is: How unreliable is President Bush? Let me count the ways. Email entry |